Point of View

The Southern Baptist Convention has more than 42,000 affiliated churches with a combined membership of 16 million. This makes the Southern Baptist Convention the largest Baptist organization in the world.

Much like the Florida Baptist State Convention, the SBC is comprised of persons from member churches who are elected to the various boards of the convention entities. The boards of the Convention’s entities govern the work of the organization, setting guidelines, policies and bylaws for the staff and operation.

Unlike the Florida Baptist State Convention, the SBC does not have an Executive Board. In Florida, the Executive Board is the State Board of Missions, while in other state conventions the governing board sometimes is called the Executive Board.

The SBC has an Executive Committee. The Executive Committee cannot make decisions for the convention. The Executive Committee receives recommendations from the convention in session; addresses the issues between sessions; and then makes recommendations to the SBC to be voted upon in the annual meeting in June. Every action taken by the Executive Committee must be reported to the SBC.

The Executive Committee does make decisions, but they must be voted upon by the SBC in session before the matter is settled. Let me give a hypothetical illustration. During the SBC business session in June, a messenger (elected by the local church), makes a motion to allocate more Cooperative Program income to the International Mission Board. The convention in session would vote to refer that motion to the Executive Committee. The motion, now a recommendation, would be discussed through the Budget Committee of the Executive Committee then taken to the full Executive Committee for a vote. The disposal of the issue would be reported to the SBC for final action.

When I served as pastor of Broadmoor Baptist Church in Shreveport, La., I was elected to serve on the SBC’s Executive Committee for eight years, from 1980-1988. It was a wonderful experience. We dealt openly and honestly with some weighty issues. All state conventions that qualify are represented on the Executive Committee. The members come from churches; they are elected by the Southern Baptist Convention, not sent by the state conventions.

Now you may be wondering how I was nominated to serve on the Executive Committee. The SBC President and the vice-presidents appoint a Committee on Committees. The Committee on Committees recommends to the SBC the Committee on Nominations. The Committee on Nominations then recommends all trustees to the SBC for election. Trustees serve at the will of the convention, not the will of the board of the various entities.

It is a wonderful system of checks and balances – an absolute must for a democratic process of governance to work.

This is fifth in the series, “How Does It Work,” designed to explain how the Florida Baptist State Convention functions.